# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1944_S327
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Financial Matters : 827

enter into a voluntary agreement of laying in store on
" ‘days as God has prospered us’ (1 Cor. 16:2), in order to make
er’ provision for those of our own house.

3, Neither is the Fund “just a business proposition.” Business
palways carried on for profit. The Pension is a friendly family
and arrangement under which only those will benefit who on
count of illness, old age, or bereavement are not able to support .
hemselves,

4, (a) Those non- -~members who contend that they and their
widows, are entitled to the income of the L. L. L. Endowment should
‘consider that those $80,000 would not go very far if they were dis-
tributed among the 1,600 persons depending on support. They
should also remember that in 1919 the Endowment Fund would
have been designated for pension proper if it had not been for the
attitude taken by one adverse man. Under the circumstances
the L.L. L. presented the Fund with the condition that the proceeds “
should be used “in the manner.adopted by Synod.” This expresses
hope that the time would come when Synod would be ready to
stematize the support department.

“ (b) The Permanent Support Fund, balance $224,000, was
arted in 1917. by a bequest of the English District in the amount
3,000 with the condition that it become the nucleus of a pension

. ‘5., The last excuse, inability to contribute, cannot be advanced
ace the Fort Wayne convention expressly stated (what really
elf-evident), that the underpaid and unfortunate are to receive
elp by. applying to the officials. Proceedings, 1941, p. 381. Those
brethren who confided in us and accepted our advice are now
m imbers of the Fund.

' During the last three years the participation of workers
increased by 40 per cent; of the salary-paying organizations, by
60 per cent, and the assets, by 112 per cent. And we say: To God
all praise and glory! But there remains the disheartening fact
. that one half of all congregations and one thousand and two
hundred professors, pastors, and teachers have not contributed
“a cent for almost seven years, and the thousands of latecomers
only a.part of what Synod could rightfully expect of them.
As a result several million dollars are irretrievably lost to our cause.
a . A large number of belated entrants, workers and congrega-
“- tions, realizing the great advantage of having the special Old Age
and Death Benefits offered to those who remit in full, are paying
. off the arrears in convenient installments. .No interest is charged
on the back dues. i

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